My Son Fell Into a Hole
and nine other points
Five things.
On Friday, my son and I were walking in the backyard with the dogs, chatting away, when suddenly I turned to him and discovered that he was not there. He had fallen into a hole. Or, more accurately, a hole had opened up beneath him. It was past his knees; he is a human of some size, so this is significant. We laughed H A H A H A as he scrambled out of the sinkhole, but it was one of those things that got less funny after it happened, because, in retrospect, it was clearly not yet done eating him. Would it have taken all of him? Do I live in a man-eating place? The internet tells us we should get bags of dirt to fill the hole, so I looked inside it to see how many bags we’d need—guys, the hole goes on forever. Send dirt.
Thank you for your well-wishes on finishing my novel over the weekend and, also, thanks to you who helped me on Sunday when ICLOUD DELETED MY NOVEL AS I WAS WORKING ON IT AND EVERYTHING VANISHED BEFORE MY EYES AGH TRUST NOTHING. I recovered the file, but iCloud had eaten 1,000 words that I had to redo. Regardless, my next animal, a standalone adult novel that is definitely unhinged and possibly great is now with my editor.
Which is good! Because I have a very busy travel schedule coming up this month. Will I be seeing any of you guys there? If so, I could use some bookmarks, if you’ve got any handy. Lover is exhausted by me leaving books on their faces all over the house.
4. Readers have already been asking me when the next novel will come out and what it is about (gratifying)(thank you). I don’t know the first one yet and I’m not supposed to talk about the second, so you can instead just have this tidbit, which is that I added this fortune I once received from a Zoltar machine on the Santa Monica pier to my Pinterest inspiration board as I wrote.
5. I’ve just started reading Raymond Chandler for the first time in my life. Why didn’t anyone tell me he was so funny?
Oh, right, I was allowed to share the cover of THE DREAM THIEVES graphic novel, which is coming out next August.
If you’re a school librarian eyeballing your order forms, know that this one is more sweary and intense than the first one, just like the original prose novel. Thank you, guys, for your huge support for the first one—that lets us continue on through series, and I want to be sure we make it all the way to the end by 2028!
I’m now partnering with Parnassus Books for signed, personalized copies (huge round of applause to One More Page for carrying the fiery torch of this job for so many years). You can get those here.
I went to see Squish and the Toxhards on Saturday with Thing 1, and I’ve been listening to “Mosquito” ever since.
the Thing that wanted to go dancing while I was on deadline It is November, so it is Scorpio season. Who amongst you is reading THE SCORPIO RACES this fall? I think fondly of our reread. A subscriber asked me: “When did you start to notice what makes a Maggie Stiefvater novel and MS novel? Was it at the jump from Forever to The Scorpio Races? Was it a more gradual realization?” It was very definitely when I wrote THE SCORPIO RACES that I knew there was something that made something Stiefvatery, and I wanted to keep doing it. I’m not sure I could have made a bullet point list of what that was, and I’m not always sure if readers can tell, but it feels different for me. (Most Stiefvatery of my novels, in order of publication: Ballad, The Scorpio Races, The Dream Thieves, The Raven King, Sinner, Mister Impossible, SECRET BOOK WHICH IS NOT ANNOUNCED BUT IS VERY STIEFVATERY.)
Do we want to do a readalong of THE LISTENERS at some point? Is that a thing that seems delicious, or is committing to two weeks of scheduling disastrous? Discuss.
Hi Maggie; yes to readalong, please. I was planning to revisit The Listeners along with a few folks who might as well be reading this comment right now (lmao), so this would be the perfect chance for us to do so.
I'm very glad to hear that the new novel is definitely unhinged. I'm also delighted to hear that Ballad is, in your opinion, Stiefvatery, because it's one of those that people don't really talk about these days, but one I still love a lot, so it's nice to see it in that list; I really saw myself in James back in the day. Should reread that one too at some point.
Ok here's my stab at the definition of Stiefvatery - because I too was trying to put into words why I love Scorpio Races beyond all reason! From my GR review: "The alchemy of this book is that these creatures are grafted so expertly into the world of horses that they don't even seem magical or mythical; they don't seem made up at all. You will finish this book believing entirely in the existence of the Irish water horses, knowing their sound, texture, and smell. Like an expert forgery (see what I did there?), they are worked into a rich tapestry with history and provenance, and you believe them." So it's THAT - it's embedding magic into reality in such a way that the seams don't show. That's Stiefvatery, for me!